The men didn’t answer.
The deputy turned back to them. “Might be a good idear to go,” he said. The thin smile was back on his face. “Board of Health says we got to clean out this camp. An’ if it gets around that you got reds out here- why, somebody might git hurt. Be a good idear if all you fellas moved on to Tulare. They isn’t a thing to do aroun’ here. That’s jus’ a friendly way a telling you. Be a bunch a guys down here, maybe with pick handles, if you ain’t gone.”
The contractor said, “I told you I need men. If you don’t want to work- well, that’s your business.”
The deputy smiled. “If they don’t want to work, they ain’t a place for ’em in this county. We’ll float ’em quick.”
Floyd stood stiffly beside the deputy, and Floyd’s thumbs were hooked over his belt. Tom stole a look at him, and then stared at the ground.
“That’s all,” the contractor said. “There’s men needed in Tulare County; plenty of work.”
Tom looked slowly up at Floyd’s hands, and he saw the strings at the wrists standing out under the skin. Tom’s own hands came up, and his thumbs hooked over his belt.
“Yeah, that’s all. I don’t want one of you here by tomorra morning.”
The contractor stepped into the Chevrolet.
“Now, you,” the deputy said to Floyd, “you get in that car.” He reached a large hand up and took hold of Floyd’s left arm. Floyd spun and swung with one movement. His fist splashed into the large face, and in the same motion he was away, dodging down the line of tents. The deputy staggered and Tom put out his foot for him to trip over. The deputy fell heavily and rolled, reaching for his gun. Floyd dodged in and out of sight down the line. The deputy fired from the ground. A woman in front of a tent screamed and then looked at a hand which had no knuckles. The fingers hung on strings against her palm, and the torn flesh was white and bloodless. Far down the line Floyd came in sight, sprinting for the willows. The deputy, sitting on the ground, raised his gun again and then, suddenly, from the group of men, the Reverend Casy stepped. He kicked the deputy in the neck and then stood back as the heavy man crumpled into unconsciousness.
The motor of the Chevrolet roared and it streaked away, churning the dust. It mounted to the highway and shot away. In front of her tent, the woman still looked at her shattered hand. Little droplets of blood began to ooze from the wound. And a chuckling hysteria began in her throat, a whining laugh that grew louder and higher with each breath.
The deputy lay on his side, his mouth open against the dust.
Tom picked up his automatic, pulled out the magazine and threw it into the brush, and he ejected the live shell from the chamber. “Fella like that ain’t got no right to a gun,” he said; and he dropped the automatic to the ground.
A crowd had collected around the woman with the broken hand, and her hysteria increased, a screaming quality came into her laughter.
Casy moved close to Tom. “You got to git out,” he said. “You go down in the willas an’ wait. He didn’ see me kick ‘im, but he seen you stick out your foot.”
“I don’ want ta go,” Tom said.
Casy put his head close. He whispered, “They’ll fingerprint you. You broke parole. They’ll send you back.”
Tom drew in his breath quietly. “Jesus! I forgot.”
“Go quick,” Casy said. “‘Fore he comes to.”
“Like to have his gun,” Tom said.
“No. Leave it. If it’s awright to come back, I’ll give ya four high whistles.”
Tom strolled away casually, but as soon as he was away from the group he hurried his steps, and he disappeared among the willows that lined the river.
Al stepped over to the fallen deputy. “Jesus,” he said admiringly, “you sure flagged ‘im down!”
The crowd of men had continued to stare at the unconscious man. And now in the great distance a siren screamed up the scale and dropped, and it screamed again, nearer this time. Instantly the men were nervous. They shifted their feet for a moment and then they moved away, each one to his own tent. Only Al and the preacher remained.
Casy turned to Al. “Get out,” he said. “Go on, get out- to the tent. You don’t know nothin’.”
“Yeah? How ’bout you?”
Casy grinned at him. “Somebody got to take the blame. I got no kids. They’ll jus’ put me in jail, an’ I ain’t doin’ nothin’ but set aroun’.”
Al said, “Ain’t no reason for-”
“Go on now,” Casy said sharply. “You get outta this.”
Al bristled. “I ain’t takin’ orders.”
Casy said softly, “If you mess in this your whole fambly, all your folks, gonna get in trouble. I don’ care about you. But your ma and your pa, they’ll get in trouble. Maybe they’ll send Tom back to McAlester.”
Al considered it for a moment. “O.K.,” he said. “I think you’re a damn fool, though.”
“Sure,” said Casy. “Why not?”
The siren screamed again and again, and always it came closer. Casy knelt beside the deputy and turned him over. The man groaned and fluttered his eyes, and he tried to see. Casy wiped the dust off his lips. The families were in the tents now, and the flaps were down, and the setting sun made the air red and the gray tents bronze.
Tires squealed on the highway and an open car came swiftly into the camp. Four men, armed with rifles, piled out. Casy stood up and walked to them.
“What the hell’s goin’ on here?”
Casy said, “I knocked out your man there.”
One of the armed men went to the deputy. He was conscious now, trying weakly to sit up.
“Now what happened here?”
“Well,” Casy said, “he got tough an’ I hit ‘im, and he started shootin’- hit a woman down the line. So I hit ‘im again.”
“Well, what’d you do in the first place?”
“I talked back,” said Casy.
“Get in that car.”
“Sure,” said Casy, and he climbed into the back seat and sat down. Two men helped the hurt deputy to his feet. He felt his neck gingerly. Casy said, “They’s a woman down the row like to bleed to death from his bad shootin’.”
“We’ll see about that later. Joe, is this the fella that hit you?”
The dazed man stared sickly at Casy. “Don’t look like him.”
“It was me, all right,” Casy said. “You got smart with the wrong fella.”
Joe shook his head slowly. “You don’t look like the right fella to me. By God, I’m gonna be sick!”
Casy said, “I’ll go ‘thout no trouble. You better see how bad that woman’s hurt.”
“Where’s she?”
“That tent over there.”
The leader of the deputies walked to the tent, rifle in hand. He spoke through the tent walls, and then went inside. In a moment he came out and walked back. And he said, a little proudly, “Jesus, what a mess a .45 does make! They got a tourniquet on. We’ll send a doctor out.”
Two deputies sat on either side of Casy. The leader sounded his horn. There was no movement in the camp. The flaps were down tight, and the people in their tents. The engine started and the car swung around and pulled out of the camp. Between his guards Casy sat proudly, his head up and the stringy muscles of his neck prominent. On his lips there was a faint smile and on his face a curious look of conquest.
When the deputies had gone, the people came out of the tents. The sun was down now, and the gentle blue evening light was in the camp. To the east the mountains were still yellow with sunlight. The women went back to the fires that had died. The men collected to squat together and to talk softly.
Al crawled from under the Joad tarpaulin and walked toward the willows to whistle for Tom. Ma came out and built her little fire of twigs.
“Pa,” she said, “we ain’t goin’ to have much. We et so late.”
Pa and Uncle John stuck close to the camp, watching Ma peeling potatoes and slicing them raw into a frying pan of deep grease. Pa said, “Now what the hell made the preacher do that?”
Ruthie and Winfield crept close and crouched down to hear the talk.
Uncle John scratched the earth deeply with a long rusty nail. “He knowed about sin. I ast him about sin, an’ he tol’ me; but I don’ know if he’s right. He says a fella’s sinned if he thinks he’s sinned.” Uncle John’s eyes were tired and sad. “I been secret all my days,” he said. “I done things I never tol’ about.”